Methodology and source policy

• Scope: 50 states plus the District of Columbia (supplemental jurisdiction), five practice types, federal law where relevant. Law stated as of October 22, 2026 (dates in Arizona time, MST).
• Every legal statement in this guide traces to one or more numbered claims in a research claim register (for example 'F-007' or 'TX-012'). A mapping file lists each statement and its claim IDs.
• Sources are ranked: official statute, regulation and court sites first; official agency and board publications second; secondary sources (law-firm summaries, trackers, unofficial code hosts) only when official text was unavailable, and then labeled as secondary.
• Binding law is kept separate from agency guidance, from our inferences, and from recommendations. Allegations, settlements and findings are labeled as such. Pending bills are described as not law.
• We did not bypass website security checks; sources that blocked automated access are logged as unverified rather than read another way.
• Gaps are shown as gaps. 'Not researched' or 'not located' means this research did not find or read the rule, not that no rule exists. Licensing-board discipline databases were not searched exhaustively, so the absence of a located board order is not evidence that none exists.
• Enforcement examples are illustrations, not predictions. Maximum penalties are ceilings, not typical outcomes.
• Statements marked † rely in part on a source copy hosted on an unofficial website (for example a free case-law or code mirror) or on a finding rated lower confidence. They should be checked against the official source before anyone relies on them.

Bracketed codes are reference numbers for the sources listed in the research claim register; "research gap" codes point to logged open research issues.